Fishing

I will be moving to the OK City area within the next 2 months. Where is all the Bass fishing? Do you have Walleye??? Also any ideas on where I can locate a rental home preferablly in the Choctaw area? Thanks all, I cant wait to drown some worms in OK waters.

Hi Wingfixr,

I'm in the same boat--no pun intended, lol. We're on the way to the OKC area as well, moving from the West. This forum doesn't seem to be too active.

Apparently they have lots of panfish like perch and crappie, and catfish, sauger, saugeye, walleye, several different types of bass, gar, a couple types of trout, and something I've never heard of before called a "paddlefish." Here's a link to the Oklahoma fishing proclamation: http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/...12_fishing_guide.pdf

Only thing that bugs me is apparently you have to live in OK for 6 months before they let you have a resident fishing license. If we move there and put down roots and live and work there, why do we have to wait 6 mos?

Here's a link to a couple of places in the Choctaw area to look for rentals: http://www.rentals.com/Oklahoma/Choctaw/ and http://www.rentalhouses.com/search/Choctaw-OK

Good luck.
Do Right and Fear No One

Yeah, the six month thing I believe is in most states. I am originally from MN so the pan fish I love. I believe that once you have your State Drivers lic. you can git a fishing lic. Thats what I did here in Arizona, the kid at Wally world never even asked how long i been a resident. But that was a waste of money, no fishing in the desert, lol.

Thanks for the link to Choctaw rentals. Where are you coming from in the West? Sounds like we may have drown some worms once we get out there.

I'm in Utah right now, have a sis that lives in Tucson though.

Hm I was wrong on the 6 mos thing--apparently that's only for lifetime licenses. You do have to "establish a residence" there for 60 days though, and that's 60 days from when you get your OK drivers license. Oh well. I guess there are a lot of non-residents who buy vacation property or hunting land or something, who use that to get "resident" status even though they aren't...so I can see why they're careful. I'll probably be busy moving in and stuff for the first 60 days though, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

I'm always up for new fishing buddies. I'm sure we can't be the only two people in that state who fish, and who use a computer!

Best of luck with your move.
Do Right and Fear No One

LMOA, yeah I hope not, Damn I spent six years up in Utah, worked at Hill, transfered down to Davis-Monthan about a year ago, and now I am going to OK, hopefully it will be my last move. I do miss the scenery of Utah, but that about all I miss. Well, maybe we can get this site up and running again, looks mighty dead...
I will have a busy 60 days myself, Move out to OK, find a room til May 20th, drive back to Tucson for wife and kids, drive back to OK, lol Dont know how much fishing I will get in but I sure as hell will try.

Oklahoma has a lot of excellent fishing in the Eastern part of the state, while the western part has some very good fishing spots.

Btw, the attached picture is what 3 paddle fish look like! They run up the river towards Grand Lake (northeast OK), but can only be found a couple of weeks out of the year when they go up stream for spawning.

Btw, I'm just the opposite of y'all... I spent 29 years in Oklahoma before moving to Idaho!

lol thanks for the pic, epstein. They make me laugh, they're such comical looking fish! We put in an offer on a place that has a pond, and the fishing's pretty good. Sunfish, crappie, bass, and catfish. I'm a little bummed about the very small trout fishing chances in OK but that's okay I love to eat bass and panfish too Thanks for the reply. Hope you're enjoying Idaho, I love the West. Great place to live and raise a family.

Have a great weekend!
Do Right and Fear No One

Finally got the picture of my dad's PaddleFish this year off of my phone.

I don't have a clue how he held it up... It's almost as big as he is!

I love Idaho, but sure miss my family in Oklahoma :)

In high school I lived in Joplin, Mo and our favorite lake in Oklahoma was always Grand Lake o' the Cherokees. Friends parents kept a camper and a boat there. Long time ago but probable worth looking into.
Men think that they own the water they use. You might as well claim [the] air.... to say that you own the water.
- Mr Murdock
The Utah Constitution recognized and confirms the public's ownership of Utah Waters.
-Judge Derek P. Pullan, Fourth District Court, 21 Day of May 2012

Thanks riverdog. I've heard good things about Tenkiller, too. Appreciate the insight!
Do Right and Fear No One

Wow what a monster! I hear you can't "catch" paddlefish, per se, since all they eat is plankton, so you have to snag them. Do you know if they're edible? They are so funny looking
Do Right and Fear No One

LL is this where you went. I'm just TDY down here this week from Utah and was curious if you found a few easy good spots around Tinker to fish? Don't have any tackle or equipment so if there's good fish'en close I may have to do a bass pro shop run tonight so I can play after work tomorrow. Looks like this forum hasn't caught fire like the Utah one has. Guess everyone must go fish instead of talk about it. Thanks for any input. J

Hiya Skunked, yup I'm here

I've found some spots to fish, yes, but with the scorching hot weather here nothing has been too easy. Plus I have no sense of direction so it's hard to tell you exactly where I've been! I'll try though.

Okay so yesterday we went to Lake Stanley Draper, which is the closest big lake to Tinker. http://lakedraper.com/ http://lakedraper.com/...ble/DraperMap_Lg.jpg The water level is super low. We drove around, got lost a couple times, finally found a boat ramp with a fishing pier, but the lake is so low they're a good 20 feet dry. The fishing was absolutely hot using worms floating off the bottom for dink sized catfish. They are good ones, though, not mudcats, so that's something I guess. Judging by the map I just linked you to, the area of the launch ramp labeled "G" was where we were. I think!!

We've been to Lake Hefner http://www.okc.gov/lakes/hefner.html a few times. I suggest fishing from the dam, we've caught cats, wipers (they call them "striped bass hybrids" here) sunfish, and white bass. Today we fished just down from the dam, the water level is so low that it's left a little beach area on the northwest corner of the dam, so we dragged our camp chairs out there and spent the day. Used a lot of stuff, but floating worms or tossing and retrieving worms was the only thing that got hits. Got three keepers, two channel cats, one pretty nice, and a nice bass of some sort. I couldn't figure out whether it was a smallmouth or a spotted bass though, and smallies have a size min there so I chucked it back. The nasty thing though is there's been a fish kill, due to the horrible heat if I had to guess, so you have to be careful where you walk and where you sit, so you don't have to smell them. It's nasty.

There are also some fishing piers at Hefner. I have fished the covered pier on the south end, but didn't have too much luck, just one baby white bass and some weird perchy-bassy looking things with a suckerish mouth. Have no idea what they were, have caught a few of those at Hefner and they never seem to get over 6-7 inches. I hear that the fishing pier by the restaurants, the "East Wharf" area, on the east side, are pretty good and there are crappie, but I have no idea since I haven't tried it personally.

The thing you have to be careful of though is at any of the OKC lakes, Stanley Draper, Hefner, etc you have to get an OKC fishing permit as well as the state fishing license.

Anyway I hope this helps, good luck to you!
Do Right and Fear No One

Hey LL thanks for the speedy reply... and great info.... I was down last February and took a ride around Stanley Draper and the water was so stained at the time I lost my desire to try fishing that trip, but your mentions of hybrid's has sparked my interest... I have a self bucket list for the summer to catch a wiper and when I'm home I have had very little time to go try, but since I have an evening free tomorrow I may try to figure out how to give it a shot... Thank you so much for the great info and reply, especially the tips about the permits... I did stumble upon that on my net search, but otherwise I would have not known and probably gotten a ticket... So how heavy of a rod will I have to have to hold the fish down here? I can't decide whether to buy a cheap Walmart throw away rod or spend a little more and try to figure out how to get it home with me on the plane... Last time I had to send the tackle (hooks) home in the mail... (carry on luggage and a Bass Pro visit that I had to have the crappie kit) One big question, can the wiper be caught from shore? or are they from boats mostly? Also do they boil here like they do in Willard, if so which areas do the boils come close to shore? Hey it's kind of nice to have this forum and find someone you knew in the next spot you visit... I was wondering why I only seen an occasional post from you lately, guess I know now... Thanks again for the help... J

Hey, any time, happy to help a fellow angler where I can. I'm a complete newbie to fishing here but there are a few things that have worked for me and I'm happy to share those.

Pretty much EVERY lake and body of water in this state is murky, including the little farm ponds. If you cancel a fishing trip due to stained water here, you won't be doing much fishing. I hear that there are some clear "mountain" streams down by the Arkansas border, but I've never seen them myself. Hefner is the clearest lake I've been to here, but Arcadia and Draper look like Utah's mountain streams during runoff--everything mud. BTW, Arcadia's up in Edmond (north of OKC) so you probably don't want to go that far. My advice is not to bother. The fees are ridiculous, they even charge for pedestrians and bicyclists. In addition to Arcadia, Draper, and Hefner, there's one more lake in the area, Overholser, but I've never been there so not sure how it goes.

Oh, one more heads up. Oklahoma is tick country, and if you don't like the creepy-crawlies, bring the Deep Woods Off, especially around the lakes.

Rod size doesn't seem to be too important for what I've been doing, fishing worms and lures from shore. I've seem some ocean-duty rods for people going for the big ol' cats after dark, but I've never hooked into anything mine can't handle, probably because we just shore fish. I don't have a battery for the trolling motor on my little boat yet, and won't have extra $$ to get one until we sell our house back home.

I'm trying to think if I have a rod I could lend you. I have a few that I snapped the tips off rolling up the window in my car. I got the rod repair kit so I could fix them, but I don't think I have any extra reels for mine. I could lend you my hubby's rod, he doesn't do much fishing so it wouldn't be causing him any inconvenience or anything. Not sure you'd want it though. It has one of those goofy push-button closed face reels on it, and it's long and not very flexible so it's hard to cast. For me at least. I think it's designed for boat fishing. Or for a very tall guy.

Lemme do this...I'll see if this repair kit I bought will work for one of the rods I messed up, and if it will then I'll fix one, then you can use the rod, and just buy a reel. Just a reel would be lots easier to take back in luggage than a rod.

If that doesn't work, I'd suggest going to Academy Sports http://www.academy.com/..._10051_-1_46883185_1 instead of Bass Pro, they're lots more reasonable price wise. There's one right by Lake Hefner if you decide to try fishing there.
4261 Northwest 63rd St (at NW Expressway)
Oklahoma City, OK 73116
(405) 767-3720.

There's also one on the south end of the city, this one's probably closer if you just want to stick around Tinker, it's like 18 minutes from Tinker.
Academy Sports + Outdoors 0088
7700 South Walker Ave (at I-240)
Oklahoma City, OK 73139
(405) 440-6660

Fishing wipers...yes, the shad boil here, very like Willard, but I didn't see them doing it much yesterday when I was at Hefner. It might be too hot for them, sending them deep. My first one here I caught retrieving a silver rooster tail spinner right through a boil, off the dam at Hefner. (Not sure if it was a wiper or a white bass, the final debate leaned toward whitey, if it was, it was a pretty good sized one!) I've also caught them doing toss and retrieve with a worm.

The lake I've had the most experience with here is Hefner, so I'm not sure how it works with Draper, I've only caught cats and sunfish there.

Anyway, last bit of advice is grab a copy of the OKC fishing regs as well as the Oklahoma fishing guidebook. It's odd to me that they have two different sets, but they do!

Good luck to you! PM me if you want to borrow hubby's rod, and I'll let you know if I can put another tip on one of these others.
Do Right and Fear No One

Hey LL great info for a newbie tenderfoot in new country, I ended up getting my plans changed today so I can't go try a fish tonight, but I appreciate the equipment offer and all the info... Next trip I'll be a little more prepared and bring my back pack rod and reel... It's a little flimsy for real fish, but I've never been that good at catching the big ones anyway so I doubt I'll tie into anything big enough to break it... Good luck to you learning the new area, it sounds like you're getting onto it in a short time, hope the move will be a great thing for you and your family... If you get back to the mountains and need any info let me know, I may not know it, but I know where to find it... Thanks again.. J

Ah well. Next time you'll knock 'em dead. Fishing will probably be better then anyway. It was 113 degrees here a couple weeks ago, and that hurts.

The bass, walleye, and crappie all spawn earlier here than back home, so if you are able to plan your TDYs, you may want to consider trying for March or April.
Do Right and Fear No One

Thanks for the heads up but I guess I'm on the aircrafts schedule not mine so I'll probably be back in February. But at that time of the year I'm usually ready to cast a line verses fishing on the hard deck. So might be fun. Later J